You’ve heard it, the old regretful saying “If I had to do it over again, I would have done it differently.”
One year ago this week, we almost bought a house and settled down in a brand new place. But we couldn’t pull the trigger. I’m here to tell you that we had a chance to do it over again, and we came right back to RV living. No regrets. But we did it a little differently the second time around. Here are 5 reasons why:
Time
We spend a majority of our time in RV resorts, where our little patch of lawn is maintained by the campground. The bushes and trees are trimmed by the staff and the grass is watered by automatic sprinklers. Cleaning the entire RV takes about an hour. We get to sit outside and enjoy the breezes every single day because we have more time to spend our days focusing on what we want to do.
Community
When we were first on the road, we missed a sense of community. Once we focused on staying in places where other families congregated, we found community! Now we have formed community with other families living similar lifestyles, and our kids play outside with friends almost every single day, summer, winter, spring and fall.
They have friends knocking on the door all day long, they run around and play tag, make up imaginary games, and get lots of exercise. Their friends are also home-schooled. We’d dare say that we couldn’t find a home in a neighborhood anywhere where we know all the neighbors, where all their friends are home-schooled, and people’s lives are not bogged down with activities and obligations. Our kids can live the kind of childhood that we want for them.
Affordability
We pay rent each month, but we can change the location in which we stay and pay rent. We also reap the benefits of the amenities. Our current location has a pool, hot tub, two playgrounds, a jumping pillow, basketball courts, weekly outdoor movies, and a cafe.
Monthly stays usually involve a better rate. The less you need to be “connected” the cheaper it is. Some people strictly boon-dock. Others have small RVs that can fit in state and national campgrounds, which are less expensive options. If WiFi is a necessity and your rig is larger, you will pay more wherever you stay. But, you can still live in a way that fits any budget.
We’ve paid as little as $375 a month and as much as $1600 for a prime season and location. Some of our utilities are included in our rent, aside from electricity. We have the option to use propane instead of gas for our water heater and furnace. Our stove runs from propane only, and it’s very inexpensive to run.
Flexibility and Choices
The flexibility that the RV life gives us is paramount. We can stay or we can go. If we want to take a trip, we can leave the RV behind in storage and pay a small storage fee, as opposed to a owing the mortgage or rent whether we are there or not. Then that rent is applied to a vacation rental or hotel stays for that month. If we want to “winter” in Florida, we can move the RV. If we want to “summer” in Colorado, we can do that too. If we want to go to Europe, away goes the RV to storage, and we’re off!
Intentionality
You know all those things you say you’ll focus on “someday” when you have more time, less obligations, etc? We try our hardest to be very intentional about how we spend our time, and we do not plan to wait until “someday.” If our goal is to save money, we can sit still and not travel for awhile and we will save money living in an RV. If we want to focus on traveling, we can put the RV in storage and not worry about maintaining a home while we are out. If we decide to pack up and spend three months with our parents, we just go.
So, here we are, at the start of year 4, right back to RV living. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I’d prefer living this way, as opposed to a “sticks and bricks” home. I do think about it at times, but then I come right back to choosing the RV. For the time being, this is the way we ultimately choose to live!
